Young people are already excited about STEM subjects. The difference between Ron Dearing UTC and an ordinary school or college is that our students attend for a 40 hour week. This extra time enables us to teach them how to apply knowledge to real projects, developed and delivered by our employer sponsors. Our students are working with people from industry who are at the top of their game…Young people in schools simply don’t know about the diverse career opportunities that are available within the STEM sector. Teachers don’t have this knowledge and therefore their pupils aren’t getting the information, advice and guidance they need. At Ron Dearing UTC students learn about the different career opportunities that are available within our partner businesses first hand from experts working in these fields.

Launchpad is a graduate incubation and acceleration programme designed to build new high growth businesses to meet market demand in just 12 months. It is also an innovative method of graduate incubation as it is underpinned by a specially designed one-year MA Entrepreneurship programme, where setting up new high growth business becomes the learning vehicle. This means students both build a new business and gain a Masters Degree at the same time. Launchpad works because its unique methodology reverses the normal supply side approach to both business and to business education.

Mayden Academy was created in 2015 to solve the developer shortage that Mayden was experiencing. Like many tech companies across the UK, Mayden found that there was more developer positions than suitable candidates in the region. Rather than poach developers from other companies, we opted to grow our own…The potential is there, and so is the drive. We choose our potential academy students based on aptitude and attitude, and never find it hard to meet eager, intelligent people that want to be part of the industry. Our job is to train these individuals with industry relevant knowledge and skills, and to help them to hone their technical talent.

We know that small businesses in particular are crying out for access to part-time, flexible workers but don’t have the time to re-train them. They also want to hire apprentices but have some reticence about taking someone straight out of school or college. Digital Gum acts as the employer’s six-week support and training ‘polish up’. Next year, we’ll launch our “corporate escapee” programme. Digital Gum’s mission is to plug the skills gap with a truly diverse candidate pool.

Sync the City is a 54-hour event that brings together entrepreneurs, developers, business managers, marketing gurus, graphic artists, and students…We set it up because we wanted local companies, organisations and universities to come together and build something from nothing, for fun or profit! Put your money where your mouth is, and start shipping…The biggest tangible outcome is people get jobs. What better job interview could you have? I often see the event appearing on graduate CV’s. We have a couple of companies (the SenLab Group and Prison Voicemail) that span out of the event by pivoting their initial idea.

The National Software Academy is a partnership between Cardiff University, Welsh Government and industry leaders, arising from the findings of the Newport Business Development Task Force led by Simon Gibson, CEO of Wesley Clover…We aim to address the shortfall of qualified, industry-ready software engineers, by producing sought after graduates with industrial experience who will be recognised as leaders in their field. Our vision is to deliver industry-focused degrees in software engineering aimed at providing students with academic experience of relevant and leading-edge technologies…

The more women that come into the sector, the more relevant it becomes for other young women…In my view, the one thing that would make the biggest difference is embracing and bringing in more women into the sector who do not necessarily have coding experience or background. This can revolutionise the sector as the women will bring new insights, change agendas and make tech innovation more relevant to other women…Part of the problem with a male dominated sector right now is that much of the exciting innovation happening is tailored towards male interests.